Assessing corporate space needs pays off for Planon - Sacramento Business Journal:

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Planon Inc.’s Web-based software enables large companies to manages their realestate portfolios, determining how much spacr a company really needs and calculatin the real estate savings of creatinyg more mobile workforces that allow consolidation of properties or As companies focus on cost-cuttinfg across balance sheets, Planon executives say reducing property and planf costs becomes paramount. “If you look at a company’ws balance sheet, the second biggesyt expense canbe property, plant and equipment,” said Jim Nauen, seniofr vice president of sales and marketing. “It’e a savings to companies that actuall y does notcut payroll.
” Through modelingh with Planon’s software, a company can develop flexiblee space for those remote workers. It also identifiew space unused by divisions that may have downsized or By optimizing the spac eit has, a company can eliminate the need to build new spaced or prompt divestment of unused “Giving upper management a clea view of space across their entire portfolio leads to some surprising conclusions,” Nauen said. The cost savingsa to property owners is translating into revenue growtb forthe company. Last year, it grew total sales nearlyu 20 percentto $41.8 million with softwar e sales making up 50 percent of U.S.
The balance of sales were of consulting servicewand support, which the Braintree officew performs. Nauen said the company is Analysts say companies competing inthis sector, known as integrated workplace management are poised to benefit from softness in the commerciap real estate market. “Whenever we’re in a situatiohn where there’s a fair amount of turmoil in highltyfixed assets, the management of thos e components becomes very important,” said Jack vice president of research at Stamford, Conn.-basedd Founded 25 years ago by CEO Pierre Guelejn in the Netherlands, Planon established its U.S. headquartere in Braintree threeyears ago.
The compangy has about 15 employees locally and expects to grow head counrt by five to seven employees by the end of the Nauen said. The company’s strategy has been to use its platfornm to allow companies to manage various aspects of a real estat eportfolio — not just space management, but project developmeny management, maintenance schedules, and, most recently, an applicatioj to manage sustainability initiatives. While the companu has customers acrossthe globe, Planon expects North American companies, specifically ones with more than 1,000 to fuel short-term It already counts , and regional bank BB&T Corp. as customers.
Heine said these companies are ones that most need specifi software to managereal estate. “Id you have maybe four or five offices, then you mighty be able to manage it on a Heine said. “When you start to talk abouft largeoffice complexes, it requires a special solution.” The markeg for certain aspects of real estate management, specifically financiao asset management, is dominated by largwe technology companies such as SAP AG and Planon’s software competes with dozens of other small vendors to provids space management software to companies and propertyg managers.